From the dangers of asteroid impacts to the way your toilet flushes, incorrect ideas about science are propagated by films. Learn the truth so you don't become a victim.

Page 1  2  3  4
What is it about astronomy that makes it so easy to get it wrong? Astronomy is one of the most accessible of all the sciences -- all it takes is looking up -- yet it gets spun, folded, and mutilated far more than it should. If you have ever watched a science fiction movie, seen a newscast about the space program, or even surfed the Web for information, then you have almost certainly been a victim of bad astronomy.

Common errors

  1. Small meteorites
    Small meteorites are not hot when they hit the ground and don't cause explosions or fires. The heating phase of a meteor's descent only lasts a few moments, melting only the outer layer of the rock.

    This outer part melts and is blown away long before the space debris hits the ground. By the time it does hit, the deep cold of space still locked inside of it "leaks out," and many meteorites are actually cold enough to have frost on them when they are first found.

  2. Big meteorites
    Big meteorites are a different issue. Blowing up an asteroid or comet shortly before impact is not going to save the Earth. Despite what is shown in movies like "Deep Impact" and "Asteroid," blowing up an incoming space rock at the last moment is far worse than letting it impact whole.

    Instead of a single 1 trillion megaton explosion, you get a trillion separate megaton explosions as each piece of rock shrapnel hits. Far from helping, it spreads the damage out over a larger area, potentially wreaking far more havoc.

  3. Beam me up, Scotty
    The transporter from "Star Trek" has an inherent problem: Every time they beam up somebody, they convert that person to energy. According to Albert Einstein, the ensuing energy release would be equivalent to a 4,000 megaton explosion, or roughly the same as if you set off all the current nuclear weapons on the planet. If the Enterprise ever runs out of fuel, they could just convert Scotty to energy and be able to travel clear across the Galaxy.

  4. Flush cycles
    Despite the incredibly tenacious idea that toilets flush in the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere, a toilet drains the way it does because of the way it is designed. The water enters the bowl at an angle, causing the water to spin as it drains (this makes it drain faster and also get rid of, uh, stubborn things).

    It has nothing to do with the way the Earth spins because toilets are way too small to feel the Coriolis effect. If you were to rip your toilet out of the wall and ship it to Australia, it would flush the same way. This may make a good scientific experiment, but you may find NASA hesitant to fund it.




So what can we do about these and other pervasive Bad Science problems? Luckily, there are resources out there to help you sort fact from fiction.

  • Bad Astronomy
    Bad Astronomy is a warehouse of myths and misconceptions about the world's real oldest profession. It is organized by topic (movies, TV, news, common misconceptions) and has hundreds of pages of information.

  • Good Astronomy

Page 1  2  3  4